The present invention relates to data processing by digital computer, and more particularly to communication of data objects in a client-server system.
A client-server system typically divides processing and data storage between two separate but linked applications—a client application and a server application. The client application running on the client system present a user interface to the user, enables the user to request data from the server, and presents the requested data to the user. The server application receives data requests from multiple users interacting with multiple client applications. The server application processes the data requests received from multiple clients, and retrieves the requested data. The client-server system can include one or more clients, and the server can be implemented as a centralized server or as one or more distributed servers.
Different types of client-server systems result from different approaches to dividing the processing and data storage between the client and the server. In one type of client-server system, the client application only provides the user interface to the user and all the processing and data storage required for responding to user requested operations is provided by the server application. In this type of client application, the client typically does not store any data required by the client application and all data requests from the client application are transmitted to the server. In an alternative type of client-server application, the client application provides data storage and processing required to respond to the user requested operations, in addition to providing the user interface. In this type of client-server application, data required by the client application is stored at the client and the client can respond to data requests without having to request data from the server.